Set Free

Set Free
John 8:31-36

INTRODUCTION: Good morning church. An old man bought a beautiful songbird in a cage. Over the years, he grew fond of the bird, but he also felt sorry for it. One day, he decided to open the cage door wide and let the bird fly away to freedom.

He opened the door and waited, but the bird did not move. It hopped to the edge of the open door, looked out at the vast sky and green trees, and then turned back, hopping safely back onto its familiar wooden perch inside the cage. Accustomed to the bars and restricted space, the bird could not comprehend what freedom meant, and it chose the safety of its familiar bondage over the unknown reality of being truly free.

Scripture teaches us that we need to learn the Lord’s statutes and judgments. Indeed, we must learn them before we can obey them. The Bible also teaches us that to please the Lord we must comply with His will. We need to learn the Lord’s statutes and judgments and then — we are to put them into practice.

The Apostle John’s teaching focuses on internalizing God’s law through love and the Holy Spirit, rather than through outward ritual adherence. While "statutes and judgments" are specific Hebrew legal terms most explicitly detailed in the Old Testament Pentateuch, John addresses the core intent of these divine instructions by summarizing them under the framework of commandments, truth, love, and divine judgment, often using the words of Jesus Himself.

Today we are going to look at the Lord’s statutes and judgments that relate to a specific subject — spiritual freedom.

If you were to travel to any corner of the globe today and ask a hundred different people what they desire most in this life, a massive majority would give you the exact same answer: Freedom. Freedom is the great driving force of human history. National anthems are written to praise it, constitutions are drafted to guarantee it, and bloody wars have been fought throughout the centuries to secure it. We inherently despise chains. We naturally recoil at the thought of being controlled, restricted, or confined. God placed a desire for liberty within the human makeup.

We cherish our freedom as Americans. We do appreciate the great freedoms that the Lord has blessed us with in this country. Many people in the world do not enjoy the freedoms that we have. There is a type of freedom that is more special than even the kind of freedom that we enjoy in the US — that’s spiritual freedom. As special as civil freedom is, spiritual freedom is much more precious.

Our modern culture defines what it means to be free as absolute autonomy — the right to do whatever you want, whenever you want, with whomever you want, without any consequences or boundaries. Society tells us that restrictions are the enemy of happiness. However, this reveals an ironic paradox: living without boundaries always leads to the deepest form of slavery.

The individual who claims they are 'free' to pursue every fleeting desire or material lust discovers that their vices become their master, controlling their bank accounts, ruining their families, and dictating their thoughts.

The devil's oldest trick is promising liberty while handing over a pair of handcuffs. He convinces humanity that God's boundaries are a prison, when in reality, God's boundaries are a protective fortress.

As we finished the last lesson we read, “As he was saying these things, many believed in him.” As Jesus deals with these believers, He's trying to get them to see where they stand before God. He does not offer a pat on the back for their shallow, emotional belief. Instead, He issues an explosive, transformational challenge. He tests them because He knows that a fickle, 'fair-weather' faith, will defect the moment trials arrive. He looks past their temporary enthusiasm to diagnose their hidden, unrecognized spiritual captivity.

Open your bibles to John 8:31-36, I’ll read from the NKJV. “31. Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

33. They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free’?”

34. Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. 35. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. 36. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”

I. The Condition for True Discipleship – Verse 31 begins with a fascinating detail: Jesus is speaking specifically 'to those Jews who believed Him.’

A. Outwardly, these people were on the right track. They were attracted to His teaching and acknowledged His signs. Yet, Jesus immediately challenges them. Why? Because there is a profound difference between a faith that applauds Jesus and a faith that abides in Jesus. The Greek word used here is not a passive word. It means to dwell, to remain, to stay rooted, to take up permanent residence, and to endure.

1. Jesus will use that same word later in chapter 15 where He commands those who are branches to abide in Him, for He is the vine. Abiding has a picture of where you live, that's where you spend your time. That's where you stay and that's why it's called your abode, your abiding place.
2. It is like the difference between a tourist staying in a hotel room for a weekend and enjoying the amenities versus someone building a life in a dwelling. A tourist visits, looks around, leaves a mess, and walks away. A resident invests, takes root, and transforms the space. Jesus is not looking for spiritual tourists; He is looking for permanent residents.
3. In this picture of what true discipleship looks like, He says my true disciples stay in my word. They dwell there, and they don't allow anything to pull them away from it. It is where they want to be, where their eyes are focused.
4. It seems to me that today in many religious circles, faith is reduced to a one-time mental assent or a fleeting emotional experience—a 'sinners prayer' or a hand raised in a crowd. Jesus draws a sharp line here. True discipleship is not measured by how you start a race, but by whether you stay on the track.

B. Jesus lays down a logical conditional statement: 'If you abide in My word, then you are My disciples indeed.' True discipleship isn't a self-proclaimed label; it is a status proven by a continuous lifestyle. See the beautiful, step-by-step progression Jesus establishes in verses 31 and 32: Abide in the Word (is the root) → True Discipleship (the identity) → Know the Truth (the revelation) → Free Indeed (the ultimate fruit).

1. Jesus says to abide in His word — not in human traditions, not in emotional impulses, and not in changing cultural consensus. To abide in His word means to respect the boundaries of Scripture.
2. John later puts it this way in 2^nd John 1:9 – “Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son.”

C. In verse 32 Jesus says, 'And you shall know the truth...'. In the world today, society tells us that truth is subjective. People speak of 'my truth' and 'your truth,' as if reality changes based on personal feelings. Jesus stands firmly against moral relativism. Truth is objective, it is singular, and most importantly, it can be known.

1. In Colossians 3:16 it says in part, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom…” Two words strike me here. First “dwell”. Let it abide, dwell, remain. It is there all the time, not just occasionally, when it seems best or intermittently. It lives there. You remember Jesus said, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
2. Second, richly” meaning abundantly, and it goes beyond learning verses out of duty. It means filling your life with scripture so deeply that it overflows into your daily choices. Using the wisdom of scripture to help, guide, and correct friends or fellow believers with grace. Praise to God that comes from a heart that truly understands and values God's truth. A deep thankfulness develops in your attitude because you constantly remember God's grace and actions in your life.

D. Thinking of freedom, I think of a massive train engine. When is that engine truly free? Is it free when it jumps the tracks and crashes into a field going 'wherever it wants'? No, that results in destruction. It is only free to fulfill its true, powerful purpose when it stays strictly locked within the boundaries of the steel rails. God's Word is the track. Abiding within it doesn't restrict us; it allows us to run freely without derailing our lives.
E. Having heard this beautiful promise of freedom, the crowd's pride was instantly triggered. They didn't think they needed tracks. Let us examine their defensive reaction in verse 33.

II. The Blindness of Spiritual Pride - The crowd immediately bristles at Jesus' offer of freedom.

A. They answer Him in verse 33: “They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free’?”””

1. This response is astounding because it is factually and historically false. Their ancestors were slaves in Egypt for 400 years, conquered by Babylon for 70 years, and at that very moment, Roman soldiers were patrolling their streets. They were under the heavy boot of Rome.
2. Why did they deny reality? Because their spiritual pride blinded them. They confused heritage with holiness. This is a critical warning for us today. We cannot be saved by our parents' eldership, our grandparents' faithfulness, or because our names are in the membership directory. God has no grandchildren, only children. As John the Baptist warned in Luke 3:8: 'Do not begin to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our father.” For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.'
3. These Jews were under the illusion of freedom. Just as the bird in our story didn't realize it was trapped, the Jews insisted, "We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone." They were physically and mentally blind to their own bondage.

B. Jesus does not argue with them. He cuts straight to the soul in verse 34: “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin”. The phrase 'whoever commits sin' in the original Greek grammar denotes continuous, habitual action, a pattern of behavior. It means 'the one who practices sin' as a lifestyle. When a person chooses to violate God's law, they think they are exercising freedom, but sin is a trap that locks from the inside.

1. Consider a spider's web. To a fly, the web looks like a harmless, open space to land. The fly exercises its 'freedom' to land on the silk thread. The very mechanism the fly chooses to interact with is the thing that binds it and it is ultimately consumed.
2. The Apostle Paul expresses this in Romans 6:16: 'Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? [ESV]'
3. Jesus responds that everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin—much like the bird is a slave to the cage. True captivity is often internal and normalized.

C. When a person realizes, they are enslaved to a habit, an addiction, or an attitude—human pride tries to find a human solution through willpower or self-help.

1. A prisoner cannot break himself out of a maximum-security prison from the inside without outside help. Sin creates a legal debt before God (Romans 6:23), no amount of future good deeds can erase past slavery. We are entirely dependent on a Deliverer.
2. The Jews thought they were free because they lived in the house of Abraham. Jesus is about to show them that a slave has no permanent security in a household. Let us look at verses 35 and 36...

III. The Permanent Status of The Son – Bondservants of sin that people are… their days in the house of flesh are limited. This introduces another element of the bondage from which the truth makes free, i.e., the bondage of our mortality.

A. In verse 35, Jesus shifts to a household analogy: “And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever.” In the ancient Roman and Jewish worlds, a servant or slave had no legal, permanent connection to the family. They were assets. If economic times got tough, they could be sold or cast out. Conversely, the son holds a permanent position, rooted in relationship, birthright, and law. He is the heir to everything. Jesus is holding up a mirror to the Jewish leaders, telling them that practicing sin makes them temporary slaves in the house, vulnerable to eviction as the physical covenant gives way to the spiritual kingdom.

1. You and I, as slaves to sin, have absolutely no privileges whatsoever. As a slave we are outside the family of God. We're not in the family, there are no privileges, nothing is owed to us. There is no security in that. We have no claim to the family whatsoever.
2. As a slave to sin, we begin to look to ourselves for some kind of solution. Here's what I will do as a slave to be part of the family. What can the slave do of their own power to join themself to that family? Nothing.

B. Verse 36 delivers the magnificent promise: “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” Why can only the Son grant this freedom? Because in an ancient household, a slave could not free another slave. Only the master, or the son acting with the full authority of the master, had the legal power to issue a certificate of emancipation. Jesus has the unique authority to break our chains because He paid our legal debt on the cross.

1. The Jews had claimed to be Abraham's seed; but they were merely his fleshly descendants; and the truth Christ was presenting is that to be truly Abraham's "spiritual" seed, they would have to be "in Christ," or "in the Son," and would then be a part of the "seed"… singular (Galatians 3:16). Until they accepted Christ, their status would continue to be that of the slave and not that of a son of Abraham.
2. It is possible to be set free from sin, but it requires living in His word. When you live there, when that's your abode, only then will you be aware of who you are and the truth of what Jesus is saying about our lives, about our sin, our debt, our enslavement, and the way to get out of that.
3. The truth will set you free. His words will take you out of that imprisonment and bring you into the light of life. Are you free? I'd like to think we're free, but have we truly been set free or are we enslaved to sin? Are we enslaved to Satan, all the while thinking that we are free? We can be freed from our self-deception.
4. Real freedom requires an outside rescuer. Just as someone had to guide or startle the bird into realizing outside the cage was safe, Jesus says, "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." Knowing the truth requires abiding in His word to break the invisible bars

C. What does it mean to be 'Free Indeed'? Biblical freedom is not the liberty to do whatever we desire; it is the power, through the Holy Word, to do what is right. It is being delivered from the penalty of sin (hell), the power of sin (habits), and ultimately, the presence of sin (in eternity). We trade a cruel tyrant (Satan) for a loving Father (God).

1. History records that on January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation legally freed millions of enslaved people in the United States. However, history also records that many plantations kept this news hidden from their workers for months or years.
2. Legally, those men and women were free, but in reality, they kept working the fields in fear because they didn't know the truth. If you do not know His Word, or if you refuse to obey it, you will continue living like a slave in the fields of the devil.

D. The Son has the authority to break your chains today. A pardon is only effective if it is accepted. Let us examine how the New Testament instructs us to respond.

CONCLUSION: Today, Jesus leaves us with a clear choice. You are either a slave to sin or a child of God. There is no middle ground. The prison doors are unlocked. The legal debt of your sin has been paid in full at Calvary.
A pardon must be claimed. To move from the house of bondage to the household of God, you must respond to the gospel call:

HEAR the Truth: Romans 10:17 – 'So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.' You must hear the objective truth of God's Word, just as the crowd did in John 8.
BELIEVE in Jesus: John 8:24 – 'For if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.' You must possess a deep, convicting faith that Jesus is the Son of God and the only Savior.
REPENT of Your Sins: Luke 13:3 – 'I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.' Repentance is a literal change of mind that leads to a change of direction, turning your back on the world.
CONFESS Christ Before Men: Romans 10:10 – 'For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.'
BE BAPTIZED for the Remission of Sins: Acts 2:38 & Romans 6:17-18 – In the waters of baptism, you are buried with Christ, your past sins are washed away, and you emerge a brand-new creature. It is through this act of faithful obedience that you are legally 'set free from sin.'
REMAIN FAITHFUL Unto Death: Revelation 2:10 & John 8:31 – Baptism is the birth; remaining faithful is the lifestyle. You must continue to abide in His word every single day.

The invitation is open to you right now. If you have never obeyed the gospel of Christ, you are still carrying the heavy, crushing weight of your own sins. Why stay in the prison cell when the door has been thrown wide open? Perhaps you are a Christian who has wandered back into old habits, choosing to put the chains of sin back on your own wrists. You can return to the Father today through repentance and prayer (Acts 8:22). The water is ready, the church is waiting, and the Savior is calling. Won't you come forward and claim your true freedom while we stand and while we sing?

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References: Brent Kercheville, James Burton Coffman